Mediacom CEO Commisso Set for Hall of Fame
By Michael Levensohn, The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y.
Oct. 23–Town of Wallkill — Rocco Commisso, founder and chief executive officer of Mediacom Communications Corp., was one of 13 industry luminaries scheduled for induction last night into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony at Cipriani in Manhattan was to be hosted by CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo. Other inductees included television producer Mark Burnett, NASCAR Chief Executive Officer Brian France and news anchor Charles Gibson.
Commisso, whose family left Italy when he was 12, had a successful banking career before moving to the cable industry. In 1986, he joined Alan Gerry’s company, Cablevision Industries, as chief financial officer.
After Gerry sold to Time Warner in 1995, Commisso founded Mediacom. From its home office in the Town of Wallkill, Mediacom has grown into the eighth-largest cable company in the United States, with more than 1.3 million video subscribers in 23 states.
He built the company by acquiring and upgrading small cable systems in secondary markets like Des Moines, Iowa.
Mediacom’s common stock (Nasdaq: MCCC) closed yesterday at $6.36 a share, unchanged.
—–
To see more of The Times Herald-Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.recordonline.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
MCCC,